The Arrival

Well, for those of you reading this, you've survived Black Friday. Only 29 shopping days left. This build up to Christmas is a study in contrasts. Some people look with eager expectation to the biggest shopping day of the year; others loathe it; some bear it as a necessary evil; corporations rely on it, in this economy more than ever. Some even consider it a thrilling adventure.

Of course it's called Black Friday for a reason, not just because it is a chance for some companies to get in the black, but because it can become a dark feeding frenzy. The term apparently started up with the Philadelphia police department in the 1960's because it was such a crazy day. The crazy has not gone away; it's gotten worse. People have been trampled, shot, stabbed, beaten, department store doors are smashed by the onslaught of shoppers.

This consumer mania contrasts quite sharply with what we tend to believe Christmas and the holidays are supposed to “be all about.” Joy, cheer, generosity, what Dickens called the “milk of human kindness,” all of those things we and others are supposed to be and emulate, at least between Thanksgiving and Boxing Day.

We are not even mentioning the heart of the Christian proclamation in this season, that God became a human being and lived among us. So Christians in particular should not get quite so wrapped up in the holiday hysteria, though I've seen more than one harried shopper with a “Jesus is the reason for the season” pin. Makes me wonder if they are paying attention to their own bumper sticker theologies.

On top of all that madness, there is gathering of family and friends, the days spent together, the cooking, the eating, the presents. For many people that is even more dreadful and stress inducing than the sorties to the mall. Yet again, we are to believe that this is a time when families gather and old grudges are set aside and people are more nice than tolerant.

It makes me wonder about what we are all expecting; what we are all waiting for. There is the kind of waiting that is passive, a waiting that just keeps on doing the same thing every year, playing the same game, waiting in the same lines, and believes that if God is going to fix it, God will miracle it all better. Or that if we just find the right formula, cook just the right meal, say just the right thing, get just the right present, that God will miracle it all better. In the professional thinker business we call that magical thinking and it pretty much never works, and when it does, it's just blind luck (or a miracle, you can never be sure).

But there is another kind of waiting, a waiting that is active, a waiting that is faithful and patient. It is a waiting that doesn't expect things to fix themselves all at once, but knows that if we don't change ourselves, then nothing ever will. It is the day-by-day, year-by-year change that can really mold something different for us and those we love. It is the water dripping on the rock that wears it away, the life-style change verses the crash diet. It is trusting that when we are faithful the change will happen so don't give up when the results don't pop right away. It is the waiting that is awake and watchful for the hints of hope. The waiting that each advent sees the arrival of Jesus in the thousand ways he makes himself known to us.